A Curious Coincidence: Making the Case on National Security as Elections Approach & FBI Raids on American Peace Activists

The message below is from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner* — the primary DLC* consulting firm in America. Through their subsidiary organizations, Democracy Corps/Third Way, the right-leaning group urges the Democratic Party to swiftly adopt a stronger, more muscular and more hawkish stance on national security as a precaution against a possible Republican election year attack on the Obama administration as too ‘weak’ on this crucial issue:

September 27, 2010. Washington, DC.A new Democracy Corps–Third Way survey shows opportunities for progressives to deliver an effective message on national security during this campaign season, even in the face of a very negative political environment and new signs the Republicans plan to attack Democratic candidates on national security. President Obama and his administration continue to receive relatively positive ratings on their national security performance, and the public remains relatively supportive of the administration’s strategy in the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. There remain real obstacles, however, to making an effective case on these issues. Persistent concerns about the economy continue to undermine the public’s confidence about America’s standing in the world, and Democrats’ efforts to bolster it.

As always, the best way to win public support on national security issues is through sound policies; messaging is no substitute for effective actions on the world stage. Yet Democrats should welcome a debate on national security and not shy from it. The new survey points to several specific ways that progressives can present a strong national security narrative that resonates with voters.

Over the past few days and continuing today, the FBI has conducted a series of dawn raids against domestic peace workers who have been involved in international efforts to discourage war and encourage peace. These American peace activists have been targeted due to their contacts with groups of activists in the Middle East and Latin America as authorized by the Patriot Act that permits arrests, searches and seizures in pursuit of collaborators with terrorists.Civil libertarians, legal scholars and peace activists in the USA have condemned these recent FBI raids on what most Americans view as peaceful and legitimate domestic political activities that are protected by the First Amendment.

The coincidence between these now notorious FBI raids and the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner memo of today is just ever so slightly curious.

Stanley Greenberg, the founder of the firm that bears his name has professional and personal affiliations with members of the Obama administration most prominently with Rahm Emanuel, who has a long history of demonizing the progressive base — the bloc that supports peace activism within the Democratic Party and voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama in 2008.

While the Republican Party is riven by a deep and broadening schism, it is not surprising that the Democrats are subject to the same sorts of internecine pressures and tensions.

Note

*The DLC is the Democratic Leadership Council, an organization that was originally founded to Reaganize the Democratic Party after the disastrous Dukakis campaign in 1988. The DLC rose to supremacy in the Clinton Era and remained in power until the collapse of the candidacy of Hillary Clinton in mid-2008. A reorganization that brought in a new director, Ed Gresser, has seen a quiet but palpable resurgence of the DLC in the Obama administration. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner are a Washington based firm that have advised an international list of right-leaning political clients including: Tony Blair; the Labour Party (UK); Ehud Barak; the Labour Party (Israel); Eduardo Duhalde of Argentina; Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada of Bolivia; Mary Landrieu and Joseph Lieberman.

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